D-License Coaching Course with a difference

CAF’s Catapult Device Monitoring Workshop concludes

SAFA Coaching Education Department Opens Doors

12 March 2019 – The South African Football Association’s (SAFA) Coaching Education department has released the latest SAFA coaching course details which kick off this afternoon, 12 March until this Saturday at the SAFA Bojanala Region. SAFA Mangaung have their...

8 March 2019 – The South African Football Association (SAFA) is on the right track in helping unearth undiscovered talent throughout the country. These are the words of SAFA Coaching D License instructor and course leader, Raymond Mdaka, who heaped praise of SAFA’s...

SAFA’s Coaching Education Programme

Vision 2022

The SAFA Coach Education Programme is an integral part of SAFA’s Vision 2022 Plan that requires a fundamental rebuilding of the structures of SAFA at all levels to create the conditions that will bring about the sustained international success of our national teams.

We have set our sights on a long-term development plan to achieve the goal of always being in the top 3 of the African rankings, and in the top 20 of the FIFA rankings.

In order to widen the pool of talent available to the national teams and the other parts of the South African high performance structures such as the professional leagues and academies, at least 10% of the South African population must play football. Therefore, we need to redouble our efforts to:

Launch a vibrant schools football programme;

Strengthen women’s football structures significantly.

SAFA’s National Development Framework (NDF)

The National Development Framework addresses the fundamental programmes the Association must employ to establish a strong, vibrant football association with elements that complement each other and to which equal attention must be paid.

The 11 interdependent elements of the National Development Framework are as follows:

SAFA’s Coach Education Programme

SAFA’s Coach Education Programme forms part of Pillar 5 of the National Development Framework and is one of the 7 work streams of the National Development Plan (NDP).

The SAFA Coach Education Programme’s main objective is to develop South African coaches for deployment into all SAFA structures as a means to develop better players.

Over a period of 9 months in 2012, the Association convened a series of workshops with approximately 200 of the country’s top coaches to discuss the state of football in South Africa and to develop a blueprint to raise the standards of our game across all key performance areas.

The consultations led to the production of a National Development Plan (NDP), which serves as a technical master plan for the development of the sport in the country. As an integral part of the Association’s Vision 2022 Programme, adopted by the National Executive Committee and championed by the President of the Association, Dr Danny Jordaan, the National Development Plan consists of 7 streams of work that seek to place us consistently among the Top 3 football countries on the African continent and the Top 20 countries on the FIFA rankings.

The 7 streams of the Vision 2022 Programme’s National Development Plan are as follows:

Develop and entrench a uniform South African National Football Philosophy;

Build a rich and robust Talent Identification & Development Pipeline that starts AT THE LATEST at U13 at a Local Football Association (LFA) level;

Build and administer a comprehensive National Competitions Framework built on a foundation of licensed and developed clubs;

Train and deploy sufficient Coaches to reduce the coach to player ratio of 1-300 at the time to a ratio of 1:20 or 1:30;

Upgrade Football Infrastructure and Administration at all levels;

Identify and utilise the best technology at all levels;

Utilise the best researched and most up to date practice of Sports Science and Medicine to ensure full development of players.

Implementing the Vision 2022 Programme’s National Development Plan (NDP)

To oversee the implementation of this ambitious plan, the Association needs a technical capacity that far exceeds the current supply in all 7 areas. We therefore need to accelerate our development efforts in all these streams.

2. Governance of the Coach Education Structure

As part of its Vision 2022 plan, the Association has streamlined its governance structures, combining several Standing Committees into clusters to ensure better coordination and oversight of its programmes. The SAFA Technical Committee oversees the SAFA Coach Education Programme and is part of the football and technical cluster of committees that includes the SAFA Technical Committee, the SAFA Referees Committee and the SAFA Medical Committee.

3. Structure of the SAFA Coach Education Programme:

4. The SAFA Coach Education Department The SAFA Coach Education Department is the operational arm of the SAFA Coach Education Programme, responsible for the day-to-day implementation and operational oversight of the coaching development and management programme.

Positioning Statement

To ensure a transparent, fair, non-biased and professional coaching education system which provides all interested football coaches in South Africa with the opportunity to acquire or improve his/her coaching skills in order to become a football coach from grassroots to top level on the basis of performance depending on his/her talent and motivation.

Key Strategic Objectives

1. Develop the current coaching education system into a national and international accredited and comparable coaching education system;

5. Integration of past coaching courses into the new coaching education system

Coach and Player Development Programme

Philosophy
The player development is a long process under which players progress gradually from a simple to a complex involvement in the game. This progress needs proper guidance from quality, knowledgeable coaches. This cannot be rushed but players should always compete at a level that is challenging and demanding. The following elements are essential for proper player development:

Player identification system

Competitive training regularly

Quality Coaching

Competitive matches

Quality referees

Relevant, quality facilities (Safety and Security)

Proper equipment

Decisions and policies which enhances the player’s development

There is no magic formula or shortcut to successful development. Football is a game of skill, imagination, creativity and decision making. Coaching must enhance those elements. Football is the player’s game and players should be considered first in the delivery of a high quality coaching programme.